This is the classic vampire story. (Or at least the most well-known, this wasn't even close to the first vampire-related piece of literature, or tale or anything,) Strange things you probably didn't know about this story: It's told through a series of letters and diary entries, Renfield and Harker are different people, and Bram Stoker is thought to have had an affair with Oscar Wilde, but I doubt that because 1. Stoker married a woman who turned Wilde down, 2. Wilde had better taste than that, come on.
The story starts with Harker going to the count's castle--Harker is a real estate agent and the count is going to London so he will be closer to victims. Harker is trapped in the castle for some time after the count leaves, and I'm not really clear on how he ends up in a British hospital. He escapes somehow, but he had a "brain fever", so he never made it really clear on how he got out... Dracula makes it to England, of course.
My first note is on what was apparently a common enough Victorian phrase--to make your toilet. I can't figure out if it's a general phrase to freshen up, put your PJs on, whatever, or if that was actually how late Victorians said to go to the bathroom. It's just... it's just really silly sounding.
At this point you may be wondering, "Angela, why is your first note hardly ten pages in and your next note on page 297?" Well, there's not a lot to make notes on. Anyway, I actually read the introduction to this book, and the author points out that much of what Dracula and Renfield are parodies or twisted versions of biblical passages. Most of it's pretty obvious (the famous quote "The blood is the life!" is actually out of the Old Testament, believe it or not), but Renfield says that Dracula "'began promising me things--not in words but by doing them'" (297). I'm ninety-nine percent sure that that's from somewhere in the Bible (I'm thinking New Testament, about Jesus), but I can't seem to find the passage. I could just be crazy, but you have to admit, it sounds awfully biblical. Help, please?
My next note is on Dracula's origins--he's expected to have been based off of Vlad Dracul, or Dracul is usually referred to as the "real-life" Dracula. Bram Stoker doesn't specifically say that Vlad Dracula is the Dracula, but Dracula certainly hails from the right location. ...Anyway, though Bram doesn't specify that Dracula is Vlad, van Helsing explains that Dracula was supposedly an incredibly talented and intelligent man in life. A soldier, a statesman, and alchemist (dating him perfectly--though van Helsing also calls him a "'wonderful man'" [320], which doesn't sound like Vlad Dracul), which all can be twisted around to point to Vlad Dracul, but makes it seem awfully iffy... On the other hand, he also supposedly "'knew no fear and no remorse'" (320). According to van Helsing, his brain was just so big and powerful it just didn't shut down at the time of his death. This survival is what gave him his weird power. Now, at the time I'm sure the legend of the vampire wasn't very well explored and this was probably pretty acceptable--still, I prefer the Hellsing version--in desperation, when Vlad is being taken to his death by the Turks, he licks up the blood on the ground in front of him. Because he is apparently a virgin (he was raped as a child, but I guess that didn't count because of his young age, or because it was sodomy?), this enabled him to become a vampire. (This also actually works with the book--Dracula attempts to entice Mina to drink his blood so, presumably, she will become like him completely. This is necessary for Seras too, even after he drank her blood--she was caught in between.
"'A man who has centuries before him can afford to wait and to go slow'" (321).
So eventually everybody gets together to destroy Dracula. Van Helsing, Mina, Harker, and two of Mina's Harker's ex-suitors (Mina and Jonathan marry when Jonathan recovers). One of them is an American--a Texan, to be exact. When trying to decide what weapons to use to defeat Dracula or at least defend themselves from Dracula and his fellows, the Texan pipes up: "'I propose that we add Winchesters to our armament. I have a kind of belief in a Winchester when there is any trouble of that sort around'" (344). Of course.
The most annoying part of the book comes at the end--not at how Dracula dies or that he dies (he doesn't get stabbed with a stake, he gets stabbed in the heart with a bowie knife), but because they kill him, they rejoice because the reign of evil is over and he is redeemed and free to die, and then all of a sudden they're just like "seven years later..." Oh okay, that's cool. Nah, I don't mind. Whatever, Bram. Not stupid at all.
My last bit is on what the book is a comment on--foreigners, sexuality--there have been dozens of things suggested, but I think the only one that really makes sense through and through is sexuality. Dracula is kind of gross looking, but very--um--seductive. I mean, he's biting all the women, he already has three voluptuous vampire-wives (whose sexuality Harker is terrified of--when he kisses them he is stuck between desire and terror--sounds like HarkerRenfield's speech about Dracula are often twisted versions of Bible passages), so... An oversexed false god? Even just the devil in general. The devil isn't known for seducing anybody (to the best of my knowledge), but it's the same basic temptation bit. The essay/introduction to this edition (Barnes and Noble Classics) is very interesting and helpful, especially in relation to what I'm trying to explain. This is what I'd suggest you buy if you were looking to read it... (The introduction was written by Brooke Allen, if you want to try looking it up online or something.)
MLA Citation information: Stoker, Bram. Dracula. Barnes and Noble Classics: New York, 2004.
EDIT: Fun fact, I guess this was originally supposed to be published on August eighteenth, I just pressed "Save Now" instead of "Publish Post". Oooooops. Well, I'm not dead, in any case.
Showing posts with label Hellsing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hellsing. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
"Bully for you!"
Hey! So, as I guess you know, two weeks ago or something like that I went to Virginia to visit my cousins. We went to a consignment shop, and coolness upon coolness, I found a copy of Natalie Babbit's Tuck Everlasting. I don't know about you, but it was the in thing in our area in fifth and sixth grade. (Maybe as early as fourth, but I can't even remember two weeks ago, so cut me some slack, eh?) Well, mostly because every girl was in love with the actor who played Jesse, but that's besides the point because he was gorgeous and no one can be blamed. Was he even in any other movies? Look, it's neither here nor there. The point is, that the movie came out and the year after we actually had to read the book for sixth grade English, so talk about destiny. And the fact that it's an awesome book, and I can't remember the movie at all except for the one scene where Jesse tells Winnie how old he is.
So, if you weren't all caught up in the craze, let me give you a quick summary: Ten-year old Winnie is a girl annoyed by her overbearing life and her overbearing parents. In order to make true to a promise to a toad (nothing mystical here, really) she finally decides that she will run away. In the woods she comes upon a boy drinking from a fountain and demands she gets a drink too. Boy refuses, suddenly his mother and older brother appear and they kidnap her. Eventually, she discovers that they're immortal: the fountain Winnie observed Jesse drinking from was the legendary fountain of youth.
It's a child's book, so it's a relatively quick book, but seriously, it's a good book. I don't think I really got it when we read it six (six!?) years ago, and I don't think many kids do. I don't know many kids who really would get it the first time around. I certainly didn't understand the ending which I'm not going to spoil for you, but now I think I get why she did it. I don't know if I'd be brave enough to do the same thing, however...
Jesse confuses me. In the movie he seemed romantic and all, so I kind of expected to get that vibe from him again in the book. Wrong. He seemed kind of... selfish. I don't think he really loved Winnie in the book, I just think he was so excited to have someone new, you know? Enthralled with a normal human. But at the same time, it's kind of cruel to call him selfish for acting as he did and asking so much of Winnie: I mean, he's going to live forever. All alone. After I read the book the first time I remember wondering if he'd still be alive if the world were to blow up and the Tucks would be all alone in the great expanse of space, a la Loony Toons. That idea freaked me out. I mean... living forever. I'm scared to die. I think everyone is deep deep down, at least. But at the same time... living that great expanse of forever? You'd get bored. You'd long for death. You'd hate the cowardly little beastly greedy thing you were when and if you made the conscious decision to live forever (in the Tucks' case, regret stopping to drink in that spring) but at the same time, when you had the chance to die, you'd still be scared of it all ending, I'm sure. Try Hellsing by Kohta Hirano out, specifically volume eight. Vlad Dracul, all-powerful vampire, mourns his lost humanity, gets off on getting hurt because he misses the pain of being human--but is sick of it all. He just wants to die. However, when he is almost killed, he panics, cries a little, and then he realizes yes, I'm going to die, and accepts it. But he's still scared is my point. Jaded as he was, he was still terrified of it all ending. He was still human. But--yeah. Even if the Tucks somehow got the chance to end it all... would they really? I don't think Jesse really matured, I think he's still at the mental age of seventeen, and maybe he'd keep it. But for the older Tucks... I think the father would. The mother, maybe. The older brother would be on the fence. I don't know. It's really kind of impossible to predict, you know? Anyway... I think what I was trying to get to was this: "I'd rather die terrified than live forever"--Emily Horne and Joey Comeau
Maybe I'm just ranting, but hey, it means I'm one step closer to traveling throughout time, huh?
The father (just known as Tuck) is so melancholy, poor guy. But I love him. He talks about life as a wheel, constantly recycling and turning, how everyone is born and grows up, maybe has children, and then moves on for the next generation to do the same. And then he says that since he nor his family can't really die, they can't really live--and if he could figure out how to continue that cycle for himself again, he'd hop right to it. "'I want to grow again,' he said fiercely, 'and change. And if that means I got to move on at the end of it, then I want that, too.'" He's so melancholy sweet--like... like the way an old book smells. You know? Maybe not. But the poor guy. He's the most real of all the family. Of all the characters, I love him the most.
"'It'd be nice,' she said, 'If nothing ever had to die.' 'Well, now, I don't know,' said Miles. 'If you think on it, you come to see there'd be so many creatures, including people, we'd all be squeezed in right up next to each other before long.'" I just wanted to mark this because a lot of the time when Kurt Vonnegut speaks of futures, he says something along the lines of population has so increased that people are squeezed together like "drupelets", those little round bits that make up a surface of a raspberry or blackberry. The story I'm thinking of... I can't think of the name of... but it's when old people can decide to get euthanized (for 'patriotic reasons') at death parlors, which are always next door to a Howard Johnson's so they can have their last meal... crud, what's the name? Oh, duh. I was going to say it's in Welcome to the Monkey House--but not only is it the name of the collection, it's the story's name too. Hah!
I love the ending. It's sad, but the bit with a toad is a little crack of a smile at the end. Somehow, it doesn't seem as much of a loss, as long as the toad is alive and well. ...I was trying not to spoil things, but here comes the spoilers...
Jesse gives Winnie some spring water and asks her drink it when she turns seventeen so he can find her and they can be together forever. Winnie, bravely enough, decides nor to drink it--she pours it on her toad. It's--it's better in the book...
I also got an O Henry book. Ever since we read a short story by him in seventh grade, I've been pursuing a collection of his stories that have that story. Fortunately, this was the one--unfortunately... he's kind of terrible. The story in question is 'After Twenty Years', which is okay. I definitely was much more impressed with it when I first read it, but I still did get excited when they talk about noses. I like noses, and I find Roman noses oddly attractive. And I'm always like... OH MY GOD, ROMAN NOSE, JULIUS CAESAR? It's--I'm just crazy. But his stories... are really aged. And yes, he wrote them at the turn of the century--but I'm not cutting him any slack. There are a lot of stories I've read much older than his... and of course the culture and whatever is different... but they don't feel so dusty and stale. You know? His feel like old clothes you found in the old basement in a bag you're a little scared to open because there's probably something dead in there. His stories feel exactly like that. Though, he does use 'bully'. As in, 'bully day'! But still. His stories are hard to pay attention to. Which is kind of a shame, because in the introduction there are isolated quotes by him from his stories which are amazingly awesome or hilarious--but it hardly seems worth looking for them. (Which it wasn't--I was done after one-hundred-twenty some-odd pages.)
"But in time truth and science and nature will adapt themselves to art." One of them, which I loved, because it reminded me of The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury when Spender tells the captain about how the martians' science and religion never were at odds, they intertwined perfectly.
"We may achieve climate, but weather is thrust upon us." Made me chuckle.
The story I did love in here was 'The Pendulum'. Basically, a married man feels strangled in his life. He always feels awkward and stifled around his wife, and loves to be away from her. Come as it may, his wife is away one evening to visit a sick relation. She comes back later than expected, and while he is waiting, he can't help but imagine all these terrible things that must have happened to her--and what an awful person he was for taking her for granted. If and when she came back through the doors he would make up all his indifference to her and treat her as though a queen. However, the second she comes through the door--all he can think of how much he'd rather be away from her and leaves as usual. I don't know... I just really like how it went from romantic, Romeo-esque longing to the reality of it all. It is much easier to love someone while they are away! (I have a feeling I'm stealing that from someone, but who, I don't know...) But yeahhh. Quite a disappointment. It is not a bully day for you, O Henry! But John Green's bully day has just begun...
So, if you weren't all caught up in the craze, let me give you a quick summary: Ten-year old Winnie is a girl annoyed by her overbearing life and her overbearing parents. In order to make true to a promise to a toad (nothing mystical here, really) she finally decides that she will run away. In the woods she comes upon a boy drinking from a fountain and demands she gets a drink too. Boy refuses, suddenly his mother and older brother appear and they kidnap her. Eventually, she discovers that they're immortal: the fountain Winnie observed Jesse drinking from was the legendary fountain of youth.
It's a child's book, so it's a relatively quick book, but seriously, it's a good book. I don't think I really got it when we read it six (six!?) years ago, and I don't think many kids do. I don't know many kids who really would get it the first time around. I certainly didn't understand the ending which I'm not going to spoil for you, but now I think I get why she did it. I don't know if I'd be brave enough to do the same thing, however...
Jesse confuses me. In the movie he seemed romantic and all, so I kind of expected to get that vibe from him again in the book. Wrong. He seemed kind of... selfish. I don't think he really loved Winnie in the book, I just think he was so excited to have someone new, you know? Enthralled with a normal human. But at the same time, it's kind of cruel to call him selfish for acting as he did and asking so much of Winnie: I mean, he's going to live forever. All alone. After I read the book the first time I remember wondering if he'd still be alive if the world were to blow up and the Tucks would be all alone in the great expanse of space, a la Loony Toons. That idea freaked me out. I mean... living forever. I'm scared to die. I think everyone is deep deep down, at least. But at the same time... living that great expanse of forever? You'd get bored. You'd long for death. You'd hate the cowardly little beastly greedy thing you were when and if you made the conscious decision to live forever (in the Tucks' case, regret stopping to drink in that spring) but at the same time, when you had the chance to die, you'd still be scared of it all ending, I'm sure. Try Hellsing by Kohta Hirano out, specifically volume eight. Vlad Dracul, all-powerful vampire, mourns his lost humanity, gets off on getting hurt because he misses the pain of being human--but is sick of it all. He just wants to die. However, when he is almost killed, he panics, cries a little, and then he realizes yes, I'm going to die, and accepts it. But he's still scared is my point. Jaded as he was, he was still terrified of it all ending. He was still human. But--yeah. Even if the Tucks somehow got the chance to end it all... would they really? I don't think Jesse really matured, I think he's still at the mental age of seventeen, and maybe he'd keep it. But for the older Tucks... I think the father would. The mother, maybe. The older brother would be on the fence. I don't know. It's really kind of impossible to predict, you know? Anyway... I think what I was trying to get to was this: "I'd rather die terrified than live forever"--Emily Horne and Joey Comeau
Maybe I'm just ranting, but hey, it means I'm one step closer to traveling throughout time, huh?
The father (just known as Tuck) is so melancholy, poor guy. But I love him. He talks about life as a wheel, constantly recycling and turning, how everyone is born and grows up, maybe has children, and then moves on for the next generation to do the same. And then he says that since he nor his family can't really die, they can't really live--and if he could figure out how to continue that cycle for himself again, he'd hop right to it. "'I want to grow again,' he said fiercely, 'and change. And if that means I got to move on at the end of it, then I want that, too.'" He's so melancholy sweet--like... like the way an old book smells. You know? Maybe not. But the poor guy. He's the most real of all the family. Of all the characters, I love him the most.
"'It'd be nice,' she said, 'If nothing ever had to die.' 'Well, now, I don't know,' said Miles. 'If you think on it, you come to see there'd be so many creatures, including people, we'd all be squeezed in right up next to each other before long.'" I just wanted to mark this because a lot of the time when Kurt Vonnegut speaks of futures, he says something along the lines of population has so increased that people are squeezed together like "drupelets", those little round bits that make up a surface of a raspberry or blackberry. The story I'm thinking of... I can't think of the name of... but it's when old people can decide to get euthanized (for 'patriotic reasons') at death parlors, which are always next door to a Howard Johnson's so they can have their last meal... crud, what's the name? Oh, duh. I was going to say it's in Welcome to the Monkey House--but not only is it the name of the collection, it's the story's name too. Hah!
I love the ending. It's sad, but the bit with a toad is a little crack of a smile at the end. Somehow, it doesn't seem as much of a loss, as long as the toad is alive and well. ...I was trying not to spoil things, but here comes the spoilers...
Jesse gives Winnie some spring water and asks her drink it when she turns seventeen so he can find her and they can be together forever. Winnie, bravely enough, decides nor to drink it--she pours it on her toad. It's--it's better in the book...
I also got an O Henry book. Ever since we read a short story by him in seventh grade, I've been pursuing a collection of his stories that have that story. Fortunately, this was the one--unfortunately... he's kind of terrible. The story in question is 'After Twenty Years', which is okay. I definitely was much more impressed with it when I first read it, but I still did get excited when they talk about noses. I like noses, and I find Roman noses oddly attractive. And I'm always like... OH MY GOD, ROMAN NOSE, JULIUS CAESAR? It's--I'm just crazy. But his stories... are really aged. And yes, he wrote them at the turn of the century--but I'm not cutting him any slack. There are a lot of stories I've read much older than his... and of course the culture and whatever is different... but they don't feel so dusty and stale. You know? His feel like old clothes you found in the old basement in a bag you're a little scared to open because there's probably something dead in there. His stories feel exactly like that. Though, he does use 'bully'. As in, 'bully day'! But still. His stories are hard to pay attention to. Which is kind of a shame, because in the introduction there are isolated quotes by him from his stories which are amazingly awesome or hilarious--but it hardly seems worth looking for them. (Which it wasn't--I was done after one-hundred-twenty some-odd pages.)
"But in time truth and science and nature will adapt themselves to art." One of them, which I loved, because it reminded me of The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury when Spender tells the captain about how the martians' science and religion never were at odds, they intertwined perfectly.
"We may achieve climate, but weather is thrust upon us." Made me chuckle.
The story I did love in here was 'The Pendulum'. Basically, a married man feels strangled in his life. He always feels awkward and stifled around his wife, and loves to be away from her. Come as it may, his wife is away one evening to visit a sick relation. She comes back later than expected, and while he is waiting, he can't help but imagine all these terrible things that must have happened to her--and what an awful person he was for taking her for granted. If and when she came back through the doors he would make up all his indifference to her and treat her as though a queen. However, the second she comes through the door--all he can think of how much he'd rather be away from her and leaves as usual. I don't know... I just really like how it went from romantic, Romeo-esque longing to the reality of it all. It is much easier to love someone while they are away! (I have a feeling I'm stealing that from someone, but who, I don't know...) But yeahhh. Quite a disappointment. It is not a bully day for you, O Henry! But John Green's bully day has just begun...
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Everyone wants a double feature...
Fun fact!: Apparently you can only time travel if you're afflicted with rabies.
I know, this post says the twelfth on it (most likely) but even more most likely is the fact that I won't finish it till January. Or maybe just Wednesday.
I read this book a week or two ago, but I figured I could procrastinate on this one since I don't have book club for it till the 27th. (Yay, I get to see Jackii again!!!) It is... Rant by Chuck Palahniuk! Yay! I quite liked it, but I think we should keep in mind that Chuch Palahniuk is god, so... It was better than Diary, and oodles better than Choke. I think it's time I admit that Invisible Monsters and I have a special bond, so, I'd say it's about even with Survivor and maybe even a smidgen higher on the list. The book spends most of its time being pretty straightforward and normal though, so the one thing that bothered me was my feeling that I was waiting. You know, for something more... Chuck-ish to happen. And I was kind of surprised when it did, but not entirely, because he's crazy like that. So I was kind of crouched, ready to spring. Like a tiger. Or a jaguar. Or... Dare I say it...? The Daguar!
One thing I didn't like was the fact that they talk about boogers. I HATE THAT WORD. And I hate thinking about snot. And Palahniuk being careful to describe it perfectly. Ugh, and I hate it when Stephen King uses 'boogery' as an adjective in his books. Blehhhhhh.
The book's tag line is that it is the "Oral Biography of Buster Casey". Buster 'Rant' Casey, the "most efficient serial killer of our time", but not in the way you'd expect. And it's not really our time, per say, I'd say maybe 20 years into the future? So that... that's basically all I knew before I read the book. Which maybe was why I was so confused. Party Crashers are sort of like street gangs for fun that ram each others' cars. That's really all I was confused about...
"This is how fast your life can turn around. How the future you have tomorrow won't be the same future you had yesterday." I thought at first this was just your normal Chuck Palahniuk is so smart, because it's true, you know? But when Chuck reveals the little twist at the end it takes on a whole other meaning that's even odder and I'm doing to do my best not to even have a spoiler included in this but I know no matter what there will be. (Wait for it...)
Neddy Nelson was quite an interesting fellow. He appears very early on for the first few chapters, asking odd things like how do you explain X scientific anomaly--actual ones, too. Finding a perfectly fossilized sandal print alongside trilobite fossils is the first one he mentions. (That one's true, too--Look at this. Hope that link works for you...) At first I was kind of like, oh, these are interesting (some of which I'm actually familiar with myself) but it's a little random... But when Neddy Nelson appears again near the book's end it makes more sense. Anyways, I marked most of his little spheals, so it's almost like interactive blogging or something. ...What?
Neddy Nelson: Re: The metal nail fully embedded in a block of sandstone that was over three hundred million years old, discovered in 1844. I wish my name was Kingoodie. Re: The lump of coal which, upon breaking open, a gold necklace was discovered to be embedded inside: Whoever chose this site's colors should be murdered. I think my eyes are bleeding. Re: In 1913 when H Reck found a modern human skull amidst Early Pleistocene soil in the Olduvai Gorge: Ouch, take that H Reck. First skeptics thus far!
"Rant always went on about leaving home, getting out and hand-picking himself a new family, but to my way of seeing that's never going to happen. If you don't accept your folks for all their worst ways, no stranger is ever going to measure up. All Rant ever learned himself is how to leave people behind." Oh man, this quote! I can't even say anything about it if I don't want to give anything away! Aaargh! Just, just keep this in mind if you're reading it. It will make you chuckle! Or smirk. Or snort. Or something... It's dramatic irony! Kind of. Not till later. Only thing I remember from freshmen English! High Five?
So, at one point Rant as a child finds all this old money, worth hundreds of thousands of millions, some dating as far back as to the 1700's or maybe just 1800's. Whatever, either way, they're worth a mint. Personal connection time! I have two mint (1979 and everything) Susan B Anthony coins I found digging in my garden and in the driveway. No lie! So, the one I found in the garden is a little beat up, but the one from the driveway still looks pretty nice. I'm relying on them to save me if I ever get into a bad rut. People still buy collectible coins, right? Yeah? Maybe? It was a guy's job in a book I read... Yay...
I marked a lot of pages because I was confused... but then it wrapped itself up... Well, it's still a little confusing but shush. There was no point to this interlude...
"The poet Oscar Wilde wrote, 'Each man kills the thing he loves...' Each man except the smart ones." I most definitely didn't mark this because I love Oscar Wilde. Nooo way. I still don't understand the things about Karl Waxman, for the record. HELP.
Rant goes, 'Really truly with her whole hart, does Echo hate somebody?' I go, doesn't Rant mean 'love'? 'And Rant shrugs and says, 'Ain't it the same thing?'" I wrote about this... And I agree... Eventually all these posts will just be the same thing over and over and over... Unless if I go back in time, and... What? Wait, that doesn't work... Dammit, Palahniuk!
The port system is weird too, and I still don't get it completely. (Is this what old people feel like it?) Basically, this port system has replaced books and movies. It's a jack in the back of your neck. Using the jack, you can record events like the movie--but you also record what you're feeling, emotionally and physically, smelling, seeing, if you're drugged, if you're half-asleep, if you have OCD, if you see things differently because it's from an infant's eyes... and so on. So you can channel the feeling of being high, say, without any adverse health effects. XXX clubs scramble port signals so no one else can download the feeling and run the clubs out of business, since to download ports or whatever is free. It confuses me greatly.
"Me and Death, separated at birth." One, I liked this just because, two, it reminded me of a quote: "Death borders upon our birth, and our cradle stands in the grave"--Joseph Hall. I read it in the beginning of a story about a vampire who attempts to have a child by using a surrogate mother... It's called 'Cradle', and it's by Alan Brennert. Anyone? I actually find it quite interesting. It's in some generic Barnes & Noble vampire story collection. (I think it's 100 Vicious Vampire Stories? I had to duct-tape the binding, so I don't really know...
Okay, so, time travel comes up later. It's kind of like: "Time travel!? What the he--Oh. Chuck!" And you know, the theory is that if you go back in time everyone we'll know because something will be messed up--JFK will have lived (Twilight Zone fans, anyone?) or everyone will have three eyes or Hitler will still be in power or something. But what Chuck says is basically, how would we know the difference? I mean, wouldn't the future change for our whole lives? I'm explaining this badly, but say someone screwed with time and Hitler was still alive. We would have never known the difference, because in that perverted time line, we would have grown up with Hitler in power. (Even though he'd be like.... 90? Probably older...) Maybe an easier example would be that episode of Fairly Oddparents where they accidentally stop the American Revolution from happening and everything turns British. No one but Timmy knew that it had ever been different, and that was only because of Cosmo and Wanda. Stop snickering! I'm trying to make a point!
But, quite frankly, I don't think that's possible with means that aren't magical. (Had to throw that in.) I mean, no matter what changes it all leads to the same thing--like in this story I read where there's an archaeologist team digging up raptor skeletons. In the stomachs are very human looking bones... and a tarnished gold wedding ring. While this is going on, you find out about a professor being sent back to the time of the dinosaurs in a prototype time-machine. ('Sarcophagus', I don't know who it's by, but it's in 365 Scary Stories, generic Barnes & Noble scary story book) So he was obviously going to die no matter what; they find it before he goes back. Does that help? I guess just calling it destiny makes more sense...
They also say later that there are people who have found ways to slip out of the normal stream of time. And yes, you have to have rabies for it. They refer to people like this as 'Historians'. But so far as I can see from the book is that even the Historians are trapped by destiny. It was their destiny to go back in time and rape three generations of girls (not kidding) and this character's destiny to arrive too late and not be able to complete the Grandfather clause (by killing your parents you gain immortality) and so on. So even though they think they're free, they're just as trapped as ever. This... this is another Watchmen sort of deal, huh? I'm not spoiling anything by much, but it doesn't make much sense if I don't. I think only Palahniuk or Alan Moore would be able to describe it properly, in any case.
"You wonder why we always have war and famine? Can you accept the fact that the people, the Historians who run everything, they get off on watching our mortality?" This makes me think of Hellsing--the book series more so than the original anime, though the ultimate edition remains pretty true to the story... But. The main character is Alucard (cough cough Dracula) who at this point, is a good 600 some-odd years old. And he wants to die (but is still very human is his fear of death) and is jealous of the humans who can still die. But during one of the final big fights in the book he shows a very startling human side: the fact that he mourns his fear of death and is now paying for it, humans' resilience and dedication even though they're hardly "walking shimmers" (Vol. 8) and gets angry at a priest who throws away his mortality: he screams at him and finally begs him not to throw away his soul and become "A monster like me" (Vol. 8). But! That wasn't the point I intended on making. What I was going to say is he loves getting put through pain, getting his head whopped off, getting struck through with crazy priest-daggers, shot, and so on, because he likes feeling pain because it makes him feel like a human again. He gets off on mortality. And killing neo-Nazis and Brazilian police forces. I think I typed myself in a pointless circle, but Hellsing is pretty cool so I'm good with it.
In other news, there you have it. I don't think I gave too much away: what little I did give away won't make any sense if you haven't read the book, and even then. Oh, and I finished this on Tuesday. So take that, past me! I finished On the Road, too, but I'll do that later. Also reading a short Stephen King story called 'Apt Pupil' that I think I only like because of how similar it is to Death Note. (The first half of Death Note, at least.) Seriously, AU Death Note, and not just because from the start I pictured Todd looking like Light. Actually, that would make 'Apt Pupil' the original and the AU would be... ohh.
Aw, I bothered Robby D so much about the book he offered to buy me breakfast.. now I feel bad... Emma, I'm a jerk!
We read a Kurt Vonnegut story in Marky Mark's class... one of my favorites... Marky Mark just keeps on getting cooler and cooler.
I also gave the best, most succinct summary of Big Sur ever today: "He's like... Everything I believe in doesn't mean anything. I'm an alcoholic. Oh, and my cat died." Seriously. It's not fun to read... Just depressing...
Oh, and sorry if the links don't work.
I know, this post says the twelfth on it (most likely) but even more most likely is the fact that I won't finish it till January. Or maybe just Wednesday.
I read this book a week or two ago, but I figured I could procrastinate on this one since I don't have book club for it till the 27th. (Yay, I get to see Jackii again!!!) It is... Rant by Chuck Palahniuk! Yay! I quite liked it, but I think we should keep in mind that Chuch Palahniuk is god, so... It was better than Diary, and oodles better than Choke. I think it's time I admit that Invisible Monsters and I have a special bond, so, I'd say it's about even with Survivor and maybe even a smidgen higher on the list. The book spends most of its time being pretty straightforward and normal though, so the one thing that bothered me was my feeling that I was waiting. You know, for something more... Chuck-ish to happen. And I was kind of surprised when it did, but not entirely, because he's crazy like that. So I was kind of crouched, ready to spring. Like a tiger. Or a jaguar. Or... Dare I say it...? The Daguar!
One thing I didn't like was the fact that they talk about boogers. I HATE THAT WORD. And I hate thinking about snot. And Palahniuk being careful to describe it perfectly. Ugh, and I hate it when Stephen King uses 'boogery' as an adjective in his books. Blehhhhhh.
The book's tag line is that it is the "Oral Biography of Buster Casey". Buster 'Rant' Casey, the "most efficient serial killer of our time", but not in the way you'd expect. And it's not really our time, per say, I'd say maybe 20 years into the future? So that... that's basically all I knew before I read the book. Which maybe was why I was so confused. Party Crashers are sort of like street gangs for fun that ram each others' cars. That's really all I was confused about...
"This is how fast your life can turn around. How the future you have tomorrow won't be the same future you had yesterday." I thought at first this was just your normal Chuck Palahniuk is so smart, because it's true, you know? But when Chuck reveals the little twist at the end it takes on a whole other meaning that's even odder and I'm doing to do my best not to even have a spoiler included in this but I know no matter what there will be. (Wait for it...)
Neddy Nelson was quite an interesting fellow. He appears very early on for the first few chapters, asking odd things like how do you explain X scientific anomaly--actual ones, too. Finding a perfectly fossilized sandal print alongside trilobite fossils is the first one he mentions. (That one's true, too--Look at this. Hope that link works for you...) At first I was kind of like, oh, these are interesting (some of which I'm actually familiar with myself) but it's a little random... But when Neddy Nelson appears again near the book's end it makes more sense. Anyways, I marked most of his little spheals, so it's almost like interactive blogging or something. ...What?
Neddy Nelson: Re: The metal nail fully embedded in a block of sandstone that was over three hundred million years old, discovered in 1844. I wish my name was Kingoodie. Re: The lump of coal which, upon breaking open, a gold necklace was discovered to be embedded inside: Whoever chose this site's colors should be murdered. I think my eyes are bleeding. Re: In 1913 when H Reck found a modern human skull amidst Early Pleistocene soil in the Olduvai Gorge: Ouch, take that H Reck. First skeptics thus far!
"Rant always went on about leaving home, getting out and hand-picking himself a new family, but to my way of seeing that's never going to happen. If you don't accept your folks for all their worst ways, no stranger is ever going to measure up. All Rant ever learned himself is how to leave people behind." Oh man, this quote! I can't even say anything about it if I don't want to give anything away! Aaargh! Just, just keep this in mind if you're reading it. It will make you chuckle! Or smirk. Or snort. Or something... It's dramatic irony! Kind of. Not till later. Only thing I remember from freshmen English! High Five?
So, at one point Rant as a child finds all this old money, worth hundreds of thousands of millions, some dating as far back as to the 1700's or maybe just 1800's. Whatever, either way, they're worth a mint. Personal connection time! I have two mint (1979 and everything) Susan B Anthony coins I found digging in my garden and in the driveway. No lie! So, the one I found in the garden is a little beat up, but the one from the driveway still looks pretty nice. I'm relying on them to save me if I ever get into a bad rut. People still buy collectible coins, right? Yeah? Maybe? It was a guy's job in a book I read... Yay...
I marked a lot of pages because I was confused... but then it wrapped itself up... Well, it's still a little confusing but shush. There was no point to this interlude...
"The poet Oscar Wilde wrote, 'Each man kills the thing he loves...' Each man except the smart ones." I most definitely didn't mark this because I love Oscar Wilde. Nooo way. I still don't understand the things about Karl Waxman, for the record. HELP.
Rant goes, 'Really truly with her whole hart, does Echo hate somebody?' I go, doesn't Rant mean 'love'? 'And Rant shrugs and says, 'Ain't it the same thing?'" I wrote about this... And I agree... Eventually all these posts will just be the same thing over and over and over... Unless if I go back in time, and... What? Wait, that doesn't work... Dammit, Palahniuk!
The port system is weird too, and I still don't get it completely. (Is this what old people feel like it?) Basically, this port system has replaced books and movies. It's a jack in the back of your neck. Using the jack, you can record events like the movie--but you also record what you're feeling, emotionally and physically, smelling, seeing, if you're drugged, if you're half-asleep, if you have OCD, if you see things differently because it's from an infant's eyes... and so on. So you can channel the feeling of being high, say, without any adverse health effects. XXX clubs scramble port signals so no one else can download the feeling and run the clubs out of business, since to download ports or whatever is free. It confuses me greatly.
"Me and Death, separated at birth." One, I liked this just because, two, it reminded me of a quote: "Death borders upon our birth, and our cradle stands in the grave"--Joseph Hall. I read it in the beginning of a story about a vampire who attempts to have a child by using a surrogate mother... It's called 'Cradle', and it's by Alan Brennert. Anyone? I actually find it quite interesting. It's in some generic Barnes & Noble vampire story collection. (I think it's 100 Vicious Vampire Stories? I had to duct-tape the binding, so I don't really know...
Okay, so, time travel comes up later. It's kind of like: "Time travel!? What the he--Oh. Chuck!" And you know, the theory is that if you go back in time everyone we'll know because something will be messed up--JFK will have lived (Twilight Zone fans, anyone?) or everyone will have three eyes or Hitler will still be in power or something. But what Chuck says is basically, how would we know the difference? I mean, wouldn't the future change for our whole lives? I'm explaining this badly, but say someone screwed with time and Hitler was still alive. We would have never known the difference, because in that perverted time line, we would have grown up with Hitler in power. (Even though he'd be like.... 90? Probably older...) Maybe an easier example would be that episode of Fairly Oddparents where they accidentally stop the American Revolution from happening and everything turns British. No one but Timmy knew that it had ever been different, and that was only because of Cosmo and Wanda. Stop snickering! I'm trying to make a point!
But, quite frankly, I don't think that's possible with means that aren't magical. (Had to throw that in.) I mean, no matter what changes it all leads to the same thing--like in this story I read where there's an archaeologist team digging up raptor skeletons. In the stomachs are very human looking bones... and a tarnished gold wedding ring. While this is going on, you find out about a professor being sent back to the time of the dinosaurs in a prototype time-machine. ('Sarcophagus', I don't know who it's by, but it's in 365 Scary Stories, generic Barnes & Noble scary story book) So he was obviously going to die no matter what; they find it before he goes back. Does that help? I guess just calling it destiny makes more sense...
They also say later that there are people who have found ways to slip out of the normal stream of time. And yes, you have to have rabies for it. They refer to people like this as 'Historians'. But so far as I can see from the book is that even the Historians are trapped by destiny. It was their destiny to go back in time and rape three generations of girls (not kidding) and this character's destiny to arrive too late and not be able to complete the Grandfather clause (by killing your parents you gain immortality) and so on. So even though they think they're free, they're just as trapped as ever. This... this is another Watchmen sort of deal, huh? I'm not spoiling anything by much, but it doesn't make much sense if I don't. I think only Palahniuk or Alan Moore would be able to describe it properly, in any case.
"You wonder why we always have war and famine? Can you accept the fact that the people, the Historians who run everything, they get off on watching our mortality?" This makes me think of Hellsing--the book series more so than the original anime, though the ultimate edition remains pretty true to the story... But. The main character is Alucard (cough cough Dracula) who at this point, is a good 600 some-odd years old. And he wants to die (but is still very human is his fear of death) and is jealous of the humans who can still die. But during one of the final big fights in the book he shows a very startling human side: the fact that he mourns his fear of death and is now paying for it, humans' resilience and dedication even though they're hardly "walking shimmers" (Vol. 8) and gets angry at a priest who throws away his mortality: he screams at him and finally begs him not to throw away his soul and become "A monster like me" (Vol. 8). But! That wasn't the point I intended on making. What I was going to say is he loves getting put through pain, getting his head whopped off, getting struck through with crazy priest-daggers, shot, and so on, because he likes feeling pain because it makes him feel like a human again. He gets off on mortality. And killing neo-Nazis and Brazilian police forces. I think I typed myself in a pointless circle, but Hellsing is pretty cool so I'm good with it.
In other news, there you have it. I don't think I gave too much away: what little I did give away won't make any sense if you haven't read the book, and even then. Oh, and I finished this on Tuesday. So take that, past me! I finished On the Road, too, but I'll do that later. Also reading a short Stephen King story called 'Apt Pupil' that I think I only like because of how similar it is to Death Note. (The first half of Death Note, at least.) Seriously, AU Death Note, and not just because from the start I pictured Todd looking like Light. Actually, that would make 'Apt Pupil' the original and the AU would be... ohh.
Aw, I bothered Robby D so much about the book he offered to buy me breakfast.. now I feel bad... Emma, I'm a jerk!
We read a Kurt Vonnegut story in Marky Mark's class... one of my favorites... Marky Mark just keeps on getting cooler and cooler.
I also gave the best, most succinct summary of Big Sur ever today: "He's like... Everything I believe in doesn't mean anything. I'm an alcoholic. Oh, and my cat died." Seriously. It's not fun to read... Just depressing...
Oh, and sorry if the links don't work.
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